topic Re: Why have 'Best offer' if you won't respond to people's bids? in Selling

Why have 'Best offer' if you won't respond to people's bids?

lotzrgood — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 02:37:53 GMT

I cannot understand why some sellers offer 'Best Offer', but then never get back to the prospective buyer, even to say NO. Has just happened again. Had this happen a few months ago, made 2 offers, heard nothing. Yet item is STILL being listed, and price has been lowered to price I was originally offering.

Re: Why have 'Best offer' if you won't respond to people's bids?

amber-eyed-girl — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 02:57:33 GMT

Lowering the price over time, if an item doesn't sell, sounds reasonable. The seller probably just wanted more than it's worth, and has readjusted their expectations. If you are still interested, don't let the no response put you off buying it now, if the seller appears good otherwise (good feedback).

Some sellers set a price with an autodecline, so there is an instant response to offers that are too low. I agree though, if best offers are made there should be a response so the buyer can look elsewhere or make another offer in good time.

Re: Why have 'Best offer' if you won't respond to people's bids?

phorum_junkie* — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 07:28:16 GMT

What sort of offer are you making? I auto decline or accept but if I didn't I would probably not waste my time replying to anyone who made an unrealistically low offer, for instance anything with a BIN of $20 I would probably ignore anything under $15 as being an attempt at humour!

Re: Why have 'Best offer' if you won't respond to people's bids?

curraone — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 07:40:25 GMT

there are several options that could be happening:

1. your offer was so low the seller can't be bothered replying

2. the seller is away - offers are good for 48 hours

3. the seller doesn't reply to any offers except the one he wants (rude seller)

4. obviously the seller hasn't set it to auto-decline/accept as most of us do, otherwise you would have had an instant reply

5. probably other reasons I can't think of right now

Re: Why have 'Best offer' if you won't respond to people's bids?

the_pooze — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 09:28:44 GMT

Along the same lines, why have a "Best Offer" option at all if you're not really prepared to even look at a (reasonable) offer and make a counter offer as happened to me just last week.

$170.00 item (BIN or "Best Offer") plus $20.00 postage. Tried my luck at $150.00 and got a decline 30 minutes later. Tried again at $160.00, same result but, it took an hour for the decline to come through, again with no counter offer or other comment. Gave up and ended up buying the same item from another Seller for $165.00 (BIN) + $25. postage.

Yes indeed, same final price as if I'd accepted the first Sellers BIN price plus postage but, it came down to the principle of the matter.

Re: Why have 'Best offer' if you won't respond to people's bids?

millj40 — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 12:02:44 GMT

In all honesty the FB you have left others would sway me towards not responding to your offer, and putting you on my blocked bidder list.

Out of the last 30 sellers you have left feedback for you have left 4 negatives and one neutral. I'm not too hot with maths but I think that's a pretty high percentage and I wouldn't want to risk you dinging my stars or ruining my feedback.

I can't tell if you communicate fairly with your seller before hand, although it looks like you possibly don't .. and I can't see the stars you give on your positives, so overall I would err on the side of caution.

Re: Why have 'Best offer' if you won't respond to people's bids?

chameleon54 — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 12:16:45 GMT

With the new defect system being introduced for sellers, many are on edge about potential problem customers. I never used to worry about blocking many buyers but have to admit my blocked bidder list is running hot at the moment. Any hint of possible trouble and I just dont want to know about it.

Re: Why have 'Best offer' if you won't respond to people's bids?

millj40 — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 12:35:00 GMT

Yes, I find it frustrating that the joy of selling has been sucked dry.

It has never happened to me, but I feel helpless because with this new defect system I truly believe it is possible to get suspended or face limitations even if I try my best.

The system is so unreasonable and unrealistic. I am sure it will fail, but it will take ages before ebay admits it.

I have relied on ebay completely for my income in the last ten years, but now have taken on a part time job and will look at going full time as soon as possible as I can not afford to have my business shut down because of random acts of pique and unfair buyer discontent.

My ebay selling has already been scaled down to 1/5th of what it was and it is with great regret I feel I will probably at least temporarily shut my store come October / November, as I can't imagine the stress of Christmas sales with this defect system.

Re: Why have 'Best offer' if you won't respond to people's bids?

i-love-my-sheep — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 12:46:58 GMT

@millj40 wrote:
In all honesty the FB you have left others would sway me towards not responding to your offer, and putting you on my blocked bidder list.

Out of the last 30 sellers you have left feedback for you have left 4 negatives and one neutral. I'm not too hot with maths but I think that's a pretty high percentage and I wouldn't want to risk you dinging my stars or ruining my feedback.

I can't tell if you communicate fairly with your seller before hand, although it looks like you possibly don't .. and I can't see the stars you give on your positives, so overall I would err on the side of caution.

If the seller ignored this potential buyer due to feedback, I can't say I blame them. There are a lot of neutrals (26) and negatives (29) since they opened their account and there are a heck of a lot where refund was given. I wouldn't sell to them either!

Re: Why have 'Best offer' if you won't respond to people's bids?

padi*0409 — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 12:54:56 GMT

@i-love-my-sheep wrote:
If the seller ignored this potential buyer due to feedback, I can't say I blame them. There are a lot of neutrals (26) and negatives (29) since they opened their account and there are a heck of a lot where refund was given. I wouldn't sell to them either!

Ahhh, the perils of posting on the boards........................

Re: Why have 'Best offer' if you won't respond to people's bids?

i-love-my-sheep — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 12:59:40 GMT

@padi.0409.0409 wrote:
Ahhh, the perils of posting on the boards........................

Cute .gif that one!

Re: Why have 'Best offer' if you won't respond to people's bids?

chameleon54 — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 13:13:27 GMT

millj40 You reflect my views 100%. I have had one of my selling acounts suspended for a week for listing an item in the wrong catagory. ( first offence, no warning ) I believe the item was correctly listed but no amount of pleading helped. This certianly scared me a bit. Like you I have been relying on ebay for my main source of income, but no longer have the confidence to continue growing my business. I have started a non internet based business to replace a substantial part of my ebay income and have let my ebay sales platue at current levels when I was getting 20% growth per year. I am buying in very little new stock, just listing items I have in storage and trying to run the ebay business down a bit.

At this stage it looks like I can manage the defect thing as my projected rates range from 0.3 % to 0.91%, the higher score being for my largest store. The problem with a larger store is people seem to be more willing to just fire away at a bigger seller, but are more reasonable when dealing with a smaller business. All three accounts are run exactly the same with the same postage times, same types of descriptions, same policies for addressing problems etc. It would be nice if ebay could take a more positive attitude towards sellers, offering proffesional support and development, rather than trying to intimidate and control them.

Re: Why have 'Best offer' if you won't respond to people's bids?

padi*0409 — Thu, 21 Aug 2014 01:15:43 GMT

@i-love-my-sheep wrote:
@padi.0409.0409 wrote:
Ahhh, the perils of posting on the boards........................

Cute .gif that one!

Stalks found it somewhere chooks, I can't take the blame for it ( ! )...................say no more (The expert at finding strange and weird gifs........)

Re: Why have 'Best offer' if you won't respond to people's bids?

i-love-my-sheep — Thu, 21 Aug 2014 01:48:55 GMT

@padi.0409.0409 wrote:
Stalks found it somewhere chooks, I can't take the blame for it ( ! )...................say no more (The expert at finding strange and weird gifs........)

SOme of them are absolutely adorable, and try as I may, I can't find many that come close to some of the ones posted on here. Google resulted in thousands of hits, but who has time to go through all of them LOL?!

Sometimes adding a little gif can mean the difference between getting the correct message across and not. Most of us on here have a sense of humour, but I know with myself sometimes, what I have written trying to be funny, comes across as being downright nasty! A cute little picture can fix that......usually 😄

Re: Why have 'Best offer' if you won't respond to people's bids?

padi*0409 — Thu, 21 Aug 2014 03:10:33 GMT

@i-love-my-sheep wrote:

SOme of them are absolutely adorable, and try as I may, I can't find many that come close to some of the ones posted on here. Google resulted in thousands of hits, but who has time to go through all of them LOL?!

Sometimes adding a little gif can mean the difference between getting the correct message across and not. Most of us on here have a sense of humour, but I know with myself sometimes, what I have written trying to be funny, comes across as being downright nasty! A cute little picture can fix that......usually 😄

Maybe posters should be forced by Lithium to add an emoticon to their post to determine their feelings chooks...........ROFL

(couldn't find a "tongue in cheek" one...............)

Re: Why have 'Best offer' if you won't respond to people's bids?

lotzrgood — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 13:59:53 GMT

As with selling/buying on Ebay, I am perfectly happy to accept feedback here - PROVIDING it is honest and factual. Which this response is definitely NOT. I also do not hide behind a fake identity in order to leave negative feedback.

FACT - if you had bothered to honestly check my profile, you would see that of my last 100 purchases, I have only left 4 negatives, and 1 nuetral. The reasons for the negatives - seller couldn't supply, seller increased postage after purchase, 2 items were torn. Fairly reasonable reasons I would think, and negative feedback only left because seller was very unhelpful and non communicative. I have made plenty of purchases where I choose not to leave any feedback due to poor quality, or late arrivals, etc. Is highly unfair that my excellent feedback history can be ruined by a very rude, agressive & threatening buyer simply because they constantly changed pick up times. As sellers are now barred from leaving negative feedback, we are at the mercy of unreasonable buyers, which is highly wrong. One reason why I have greatly curtailed my buying/selling on Ebay.

I have excellent communication with both sellers & buyers. I offered a very reasonable 'Best Offer' - item was for sale for $132, I offered $120. This was the third 'Best Offer' I had made where the seller did not offer any reply. They lost out - I bought elsewhere.

Re: Why have 'Best offer' if you won't respond to people's bids?

padi*0409 — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 19:16:40 GMT

@lotzrgood wrote:

As with selling/buying on Ebay, I am perfectly happy to accept feedback here - PROVIDING it is honest and factual. Which this response is definitely NOT. I also do not hide behind a fake identity in order to leave negative feedback.
FACT - if you had bothered to honestly check my profile, you would see that of my last 100 purchases, I have only left 4 negatives, and 1 nuetral. The reasons for the negatives - seller couldn't supply, seller increased postage after purchase, 2 items were torn. Fairly reasonable reasons I would think, and negative feedback only left because seller was very unhelpful and non communicative. I have made plenty of purchases where I choose not to leave any feedback due to poor quality, or late arrivals, etc. Is highly unfair that my excellent feedback history can be ruined by a very rude, agressive & threatening buyer simply because they constantly changed pick up times. As sellers are now barred from leaving negative feedback, we are at the mercy of unreasonable buyers, which is highly wrong. One reason why I have greatly curtailed my buying/selling on Ebay.
I have excellent communication with both sellers & buyers. I offered a very reasonable 'Best Offer' - item was for sale for $132, I offered $120. This was the third 'Best Offer' I had made where the seller did not offer any reply. They lost out - I bought elsewhere.

Near impossible to read without spaces between statements.................

IYNWIM...........................

"sigh......................"

Re: Why have 'Best offer' if you won't respond to people's bids?

springyzone — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 23:14:07 GMT

millj40 said

In all honesty the FB you have left others would sway me towards not responding to your offer, and putting you on my blocked bidder list..

-------------------------

Ever curious, I went in to check out the feedback history

I have to say though that this person's feedback is the sort that I, as a buyer, I would take notice of. It is not abusive, instead it keeps to the facts and explains the problem.

As for best Offer, maybe ebay should make it mandatory for sellers to set at least a lower limit on it where the system will generate an automatic knock back. A limit that could be changed, if need be.

I find the best offer system isn't used well by some sellers.

It seems obvious to me most buyers will see it as a system where you can 'make an offer' on whatever is being sold. There is nothing that says it is only for buying maltiples or anything else-most buyers will take it as being allowed to make an offer on that item in the listing.

So if you have it listed as $20, then of course a buyer shouldn't be surprised if they get a knockback on an offer of $10 or $15. But if they offer $19 and get knocked back... well, I can't see the point in even having a make an offer available in that case.

Re: Why have 'Best offer' if you won't respond to people's bids?

classglass14 — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 23:34:26 GMT

When I list with Best Offer I have the option to put in a minimum acceptable bid - if your bid is below that figure Ebay automatically rejects it. With bids above that price Ebay sends me the offer and I respond, always! a lot of my items are sold on Best Offer below the listed price, but as I don't have a big 'markup' I do have to set a minimum acceptable price or take the risk of losing money.

Icheck the offers rejected by Ebay every so often and can only assume that some people are making ridiculously low offers. Offers should be in the region of the price listed. Also , to send a previously Best Offer to auction it has to start at 30% below listed price which makes it difficult when trying t keep prices reasonable.